6 podcasts to help you relax and reflect

NEW YORK • As 2021 comes to a close, there are a lot of reasons to feel overwhelmed. Although the world has reopened to a large extent, life has become a series of risk assessments as people try to navigate what level of normality is worth the potential price of a Covid-19 exposure.

Here are six podcasts that can help you to take a breath and refill your emotional cup.

Holiday gift-giving can be one of the most draining aspects of the festive season, even if you are the kind of person who gets real joy out of the process.

Bridger Winegar, a writer and actor, knows that pain so deeply that he dedicated an entire (tongue-in-cheek) podcast to it.

As the title suggests, his one rule for guests is that no gifts are allowed. But they all disobey him, which means every conversation builds towards unveiling and discussing a gift of the week.

His dry but sweet-natured sense of humour, and guests including talk-show host Jimmy Kimmel, make this a delightful show.

Although this long-running podcast is not designed to be meditative, its sound-rich explorations of the physical world make it good listening material for fraught times.

Although it is primarily about design and architecture, many episodes go beyond that - one instalment last year delved into the bizarre origin story of the Baha Men song Who Let The Dogs Out.

As open discussions of mental health have inched their way into the mainstream, there has been a wave of podcasts inviting listeners into real-life therapy sessions.

These podcasts offer a slightly different spin, as Therapists Lori Gottlieb and Guy Winch provide on-air counselling to people who submit their problems. The format plays like an aural version of an advice column. Each episode begins with listeners sharing their situation, then the duo delve into their history, patterns and coping mechanisms, and offer insights.

In each episode, host Justin Malik reads an article or blog entry on subjects ranging from productivity to psychology to personal finance. Running less than 10 minutes apiece, they are well-suited to busy schedules and Malik's calm, almost monotonous delivery makes for a soothing listening experience.

A mix of cereal news and charmingly meandering conversation, co-hosted by Justin McElroy and cereal blogger Dan Goubert, this quirky show is guaranteed to chill you out. 6 YOU'RE WRONG ABOUT Nobody likes to be told that he or she is wrong, yet journalists Sarah Marshall and Michael Hobbes have created a successful podcast by doing exactly that.

But the show's title refers to public perception more than anything else. In each episode, they explore the story of a person, event or situation that has been widely misunderstood, reveal the misconceptions and talk about why they took hold.

The subjects are fascinating - recent episodes have focused on the fallout from the anti-Iraq War stance taken by the Dixie Chicks (now known as the Chicks) in the 2000s, the infamous McDonald's hot coffee lawsuit and the debate over so-called cancel culture - and even when the subject matter is dark, the hosts' empathy and playfulness make listening a joy.

After three years, Hobbes recently left the show, but Marshall is still releasing new episodes featuring guest hosts.

NYTIMES